A federal judge on Thursday granted Illinois’ request for a temporary restraining order to block President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago.
Biden-appointed District Judge April Perry granted the order in response to a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the president’s authorization of 300 Illinois Guardsmen, and an additional 200 Guardsmen volunteered by Texas, to protect federal immigration authorities in Chicago amid violent protests.
Perry’s order prevents “the federalization and deployment of the National Guard of the United States within Illinois,” for at least two weeks.
“I have seen no credible evidence that there is danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois,” Perry said in a hearing announcing her ruling, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, questioning the Trump administration’s characterization of anti-ICE protests in the Windy City.
The judge did not immediately explain the details of her ruling and said she would issue a written order on Friday.
“Deportations are up. Arrests are up … The courthouse remains open and always has. Federal laws are being executed. They’re also being broken, as they have been since the beginning of time,” Perry continued, adding, “There is no evidence that the president is unable, with the regular forces, to execute the laws of the United States.”
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed the lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday, arguing the “deployment of federalized troops to Illinois is patently unlawful.”
Raoul had asked the court to “halt the illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional federalization of members of the National Guard of the United States, including both the Illinois and Texas National Guard.”
The administration countered in a filing that Trump has the legal authority to deploy the troops and that “the violent actions and threats by large numbers of protestors, directed at those enforcing of federal immigration laws and at federal property, constitute at least a danger of a rebellion against federal authority and significantly impede the ability of federal officials to enforce federal law.”
The Justice Department specifically cited the recent daily protests at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] facility in Broadview and the arrests of individuals accused of ramming a federal law enforcement vehicle and allegedly putting a $10,000 bounty on a Border Patrol official in Chicago.
Perry, however, found that a National Guard presence in Chicago would “likely to lead to civil unrest.”
“I find that allowing the National Guard to deploy at the Broadview processing center or anywhere else in Illinois will only add fuel to the fire,” the judge said.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
